Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Paracelsus for a tincture he made containing opium, from New Latin, from Latin laudare ("to praise"), or ladanum ("a gum resin"), from Ancient Greek λάδανον (ladanon). Originally the same word as ladanum, ladbdanum, compare French laudanum, Italian laudano, ladano. See ladanum.

Examples

"To be sure I did, to calm down the pain; and that was what I call laudanum and Mr Briscoe here calls opium."

Perhaps this wet cloth in the original, is what we now call laudanum; a potion that overspreads the faculties, as the wet cloth did the face of the royal patient; and the translator knew not how to render it.

When my friend came out of his dark room and bandages at the end of a month he had consumed twenty ounces of this preparation, whose probable distinction from the tincture known as laudanum I point out below in the note.

"Paracelsus, born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541) in Salzburg, Austria, a 16th century Swiss-German alchemist, discovered that the alkaloids in opium are far more soluble in alcohol than water. Having experimented with various opium concoctions, Paracelsus came across a specific tincture of opium that was of considerable use in reducing pain. He called this preparation laudanum, derived from the Latin verb laudare, to praise. Initially, the term 'laudanum' referred to any combination of opium and alcohol. Indeed, Paracelsus' laudanum was strikingly different from the standard laudanum of the 17th century and beyond. His preparation contained opium, crushed pearls, musk, amber, and other substances. One researcher has documented that 'Laudanum, as listed in the London Pharmacoepoeia (1618), was a pill made from opium, saffron, castor, ambergris, musk and nutmeg.'"

Laudanum is opium and was once used as a pain reliever before people realized it was addictive. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was taking this when he went into a reverie and wrote "Kubla Kahn", one of the great poems of the late 17th century.